Marvin Shanken

Marvin R. Shanken, the publisher who built Wine Spectator into the most widely read wine magazine in the world and founded Cigar Aficionado, died on October 29, 2026. He was 83. His death was announced that day by M. Shanken Communications, the publishing company he founded and led for more than five decades.

Marvin Ray Shanken was born on October 4, 1943, in New Haven, Connecticut, where his father ran a small jewelry store. He studied business at the University of Miami, graduating in 1965, and later earned an M.B.A. from American University in Washington. He began his career on Wall Street with a small investment banking firm, and a client's vineyard deal in California, followed by a memorable bottle of 1961 Pétrus, set him on the path to a lifelong love of wine.

In 1972, with $5,000 borrowed from his sister, he bought Impact, a small newsletter covering the wine and spirits trade, and turned it into essential reading for the industry. In 1979 he bought The Wine Spectator, a struggling free tabloid sold to him by its founder, Bob Morrisey. Shanken became its editor as well as its publisher, adopted the 100-point rating scale in 1985, turned the newspaper into a glossy magazine in 1987 and broadened its coverage to dining, travel and collecting. Its circulation grew from about 5,000 to more than 385,000.

He launched Cigar Aficionado in 1992, against the advice of his own managers, and the magazine helped spark a revival of the American cigar business. He also founded the trade publications Market Watch and Shanken News Daily and acquired Food Arts and Malt Advocate, which he renamed Whisky Advocate. He created the Wine Spectator Restaurant Awards, which now recognize thousands of restaurants around the world, and built the annual Wine Spectator Wine Experience into one of the premier events in wine.

Shanken often said he was in the education business rather than the publishing business, and he was proud of giving back. Proceeds from the Wine Experience support the Wine Spectator Scholarship Foundation, which has raised more than $40 million for students in wine and hospitality. With his wife, Hazel, and golfer Ernie Els and his wife, Liezl, he helped found the Els for Autism Foundation. In 2019 he received the Association of Magazine Media's Lifetime Achievement Award.

He is survived by his wife of 45 years, Hazel; his sisters, Elaine and Susan; his daughters, Samantha Shanken Baker, Allison Cohen and Jessica Shanken Reid; and four grandchildren. He will be remembered as a visionary editor who helped millions of Americans discover the pleasures of wine.

Photo: M. Shanken Communications, CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.